Sunday, December 28, 2014

1971, Kelly still had his drawing abilities, but the characters had evolved a slightly different look to them — perhaps akin to aging, like we human beans tend to do. Pogo looks 'off' in a couple of panels here, and in those days Pogo didn't have much to say or do, not really adding much to Kelly's burlesque, even as a straight-man. Albert emoted a lot of histrionics, and had some angular features. I detect some possible art assistance here...perhaps Selby? Yet for us Pogo fans, each strip was still worth it's weight in newsprint.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Now we jump up into 1971 where Kelly's art is still pretty strong (what a swell coffee pot with an upside down flower), but his writing is a bit run down...sweet, but not as comical per panel as in days of yore. That's not a complaint, just an observation.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

My internet was on the frizzle for almost a week! No Google! No trailers! No porn! No wasting precious time on pointless crap! It was horrible. And worst of all, I had to skip another Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

Sorry about that, but blame my ISP—it truly was their fault, just because I dropped my landline in favor of my cell.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

This is weird! I was 100% positive I posted this post late last night, but apparently (and I'm not kidding) I fell asleep here at the computer and dreamed that I posted it. I was surprised as heck to look in right now and not see it. My sleepiest apologies for those looking for it earlier in the day!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Things have been exceedingly busy around here, hence my absence, but I've finally had a chance to look through my Pogo archives to discover a stash within the stash of Sundays that apparently haven't been posted yet.

I double checked against a list that our friend Hun has compiled of Whirled of Kelly published posts, so it looks like this post and some of the posts to come will fill in some gaps in the chronological continuity.

I actually thought I had already posted these, but I think it's because many of Kelly's "talking heads" strips are so similar to each other, distinguished mostly by different dialogue.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Now, life has been werra werra busy 'round here as of late, which is why I'm late to my "self-imposed deadline" (as Hun phrased it). This strip is the last of its arc, with the following weeks already posted long ago. Golly, I'm running low on my long runs of Sundays. Now, what ever will we do when I deplete the stash?

Now again, sorry I'm late. But I received a very nice email today that I quote here: "You may be a day late now and then, or two or more, but remember you are so good and generous to our little band!—Martin Fass"

Now, that's really nice to think of us as a little band. Thanks Martin, and thank you to the band for playing your parts!

Now, check out that last panel with the old greybeard founder—an unusual reference to Kelly's old employer! And a regular mouse that shows up out of nowhere.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Hi! There will be a slight dee-lay in posting up this week's Pogo. I'm going out on the town tonite, won't be back 'til way late. Hopefully have it up sometime later on Sunday. Come back, for heavin' sake!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

I know some of you have said that if it comes to either not cleaning up a Sunday strip or not showing it at all, you'll take it dirty and disheveled. I jes' hate puttin' em out dirty, so I do a hurry clean if I can, which is what I've done here.

Yippies and Paul Krassner were in the spotlight at the time of this strip. Krassner, having been a founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies), was a potent rabble rouser and was famous for prankster activism.

This attorney fox guy looks like Seminole Sam, but isn't. And check out the worm's false nose and 'stache mask in the first panel, before he disappears (maybe squooshed under all that excitement?). And that's a pretty tree, isn't it?

Sunday, August 10, 2014

I really am starting to run low on my stash of Pogo tear sheets, though I feel it's been a good long run. I did find another short arc that I'm starting here. The final punchline on this Sunday is predictable, but that's just 'cause we know Albert so well.

I almost decided to pass over this week's post because the clean-up edits were so intimidatingly extensive. But I know how all 3 or 4 of you look forward to the Kelly Sundays. Time is short, so I weaseled out on fixing some of the mis-registration, but at least I made it fairly presentable.

October 27, 1968

Because some of you like to see what a fiasco some of these tear sheets are prior to editing, I'm including the 'before' scan here. The registration is more awry than usual. The pressmen really didn't give a hoot about comics at this point in time.

I still have some cool bonus material that I just haven't had time to package, but I'll get it up as soon as I can!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

A Friend-in-Kelly, Dan Cunningham (cartoonist & illustrator), was kind to alert me to the possibility of here-to-for unacknowledged Kelly art for a 1949 Snow White record cover. It's possible that an artist was emulating Kelly, but I'm pretty well convinced that it's Kelly work. Usually his work would be a little bolder in composition and rendering, but the art may have been diminished a bit in the production process.

Anyway, it's close enough to attribute it to him and for us to post it here on WoK, where I like to display all things Kelly, or at least Kellyesque. As I say I'm pretty convinced, but your opinion?

Sunday, August 3, 2014

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Last week I said I'd post up a bonus thing to make up for posting duplicate Sundays, but I just plain didn't have time. This post is also a duplicate, just to complete the arc we've been running. Then I just don't know how many more 'new' Sundays I have left. I'll have to check. But in the meantime I've got some nice dailies queuing up. Please bear with me.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

These current characters have been fun, but I was kind of missing Albert, if not the others, even if it had to be a football story line to bring them back (Kelly's sports stories could get a bit repetitive).

This strip was a bear to clean up, taking me longer than usual, but it's always swell to get one more strip archived.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

This Sunday's strip that I clipped, oh so many years ago, wasn't too bad for bleed-through marks, but as ill luck would have it, it had a fair amount of printing press dirt marring it. To add injury, it was also torn here and there. But thanks to the miracle of photoshop, well, here ya go!

Long Live Kelly, I allus say!

September 14, 1969

Whew, it's good to know these aren't really skinned canines...or at least so sez Seminole Sam...hmm...

Sunday, June 29, 2014

This strip took extra long to clean up due to bleed-through from the other side, but the show must go on. And this show is a little creepy, 'cause of those wigs for dogs. Notice that Sam doesn't deny Beauregard's accusation of skinning his pals.No other comic strip came close to such dialogue as Kelly gave us.Below is a pic of a Komondor, descended from an Aftscharka. One wonders if Kelly had a personal history with such a dog.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

This is coming to you a bit late, today, on Sunday. You can pretend your newspaper was a late delivery like ours was today, here in real life. I was a paper boy in my youth and there were days when problems were incessant.

This Sunday strip had the usual messy stuff to clean up, but I do like to leave traces of high-speed press problems here and there to back up the newspaper experience. Kelly was fully aware of how his hard work too often took its chances in daily reproduction. I'm amazed that his Sundays were not printed in full-color book form during his lifetime. At that time, the only MAJOR full-color book with the full Pogo cast was the hardback song book, which was lovely, but even there the coloring was screwy.

Bless Fantagraphics for their efforts, even if their production is like waiting for Chug-chug, the Mail Duck, to deliver it.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

I opened an email this evening to find a fully edited, cleaned up version of last week's messy eyesore of an unedited strip. Our Friend-in-Kelly, Frits van der Waa, took it upon himself to do us the favor, though he admits that it took him more than a day to accomplish it (I'm down to about an hour and a half, but I've had several years of doing this to get the hang of it). Frits says that working on this makes him appreciate my work even more than he already did. Swell compliment.

I think Frits did a beautiful job, better than me, but it's just too time-consuming for him to do more. Thank you mucho much Frits, for cleaning this one up for everyone's scrapbook!

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Well, if I can't get more than a couple of encouraging hurrahs from Friends-in-Kelly for Kelly publishing ideas, I can only imagine the grand thud that would be heard from the general public. I'm moving on, with other fish to fry.

I have no time to edit this Sunday's strip for bleed-through and mis-registration. It's as good a sample as any to show a typical pre-editing image.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Modifying my view of what could be, I'm enamored of the concept of a graphic novel approach to illustrate story slices of Kelly's life, using artistic license to embellish it a bit in fun ways.

With artistic license firmly in wallet, how about a story entitled 'Kelly and Mouse', showing Kelly's time at Disney Studio, with 'Mouse', good ol' Mouse, nestled in Kelly's lapel, trading barbs and witticisms with Kelly's cronies, giving advice to Kelly at the drawing board, slipping off to make a little mischief for Walt Disney and Mickey. You heard that idea here first. That's MY story, illustrated by a great modern cartoonist!

You hard-core Kelly fans who only want Kelly art wouldn't be interested in a concept of Kelly as a character?

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

This is my burning question ('burning', get it?): Would you pay for a comic book that looked somewhat like the cover above, knowing that it had 'fan fiction' by professional cartoonists that have been influenced by Walt Kelly in one way or another over the years, each exploring some aspect of the Whirled of Kelly?

It might be a new Peter Wheat story, or a new Fairy Tale Parade story, or new whimsical poetry, or (hold your breath) a new Albert and Pogo story, or a really good emulation of Kelly's style venturing into realms unknown. The ideas could be wildly inventive, just somehow touching on the Whirled of Kelly.

As I say, these would be professional cartoonists, commissioned from around the world, with great understanding of the wit and charm of Kelly's art and writing. It wouldn't BE Kelly—of course there was only one Kelly. But think of the different creative teams that have spun their talents on the Disney characters and such. Only in this case maybe there's a story about a kid who collects Pogo stuff, to the befuddlement of her friends. Or Mouse, good ol' mouse, could explore back stage and under the floorboards of the Cirque du Soleil. Or Peter Wheat strays into the Okefenokee.

Securing creative rights and paying good rates for cartoonists would have to be dealt with, but I want to start here, by asking you Friends-in-Kelly for your thoughts. Please, one and all, I need your feedback, both positive and negative about this idea.

This would be a 'one-shot', something like the old Four-Color Comics series. Number 2 might be Carl Barks, or Bill Watterson, or Alex Schomberg, or Charles Schulz, or V.T. Hamlin, or George Herriman, or etc etc etc.

I dunno. TALK to me.

AND, if you would like a high-res (3.5 MB) 8.5x11" jpeg of the cover above without that pesky title type, just email me at Thomas@PictorialArtsJournal.com with "Kelly" in the subject field, and I will burn it over to you.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Kelly has turned this whole Krazy Kat homage inside out and wandered down the street with it. The general public would have no idea what Kelly was sourcing, and so what? With Kelly, we enjoy the journey, not the point of departure nor the destination. The G. Moth steals the show, even as the show goes on.

August 10, 1969

Thank you again, to those who have taken time to share your words of encouragement for continuation of this blog. Later this week, I'll have an important question for you and other members and readers of the Whirled of Kelly. Please check back in a few days...

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Ahem. Thank you gentlemen who have commented recently (are there no vocal ladies of the female women-types who treasure Kelly?) about their desire to see this blog continue.

I would be sad to step away from this effort of love. Therefore, I will endeavor to continue demonstrating that love of all things Kelly...I just can't promise that the posts will be as regular as they have tried to be, but it sounds like the vocal Friends-of-Kelly are Oh-Kay with that. Someone has suggested that perhaps I make this blog by invitation only—to those that have spoken up of their love of Kelly's genius. Hmm. Still, my hope has been to keep Kelly's spirit alive by inspiring new followers of his work.

Remember that I intend showcasing ALL things Kelly — such as this very early effort by Kelly that originally was intended for the Sunday supplements, but ended up being archived in one of the very earliest comic books, somewhat before that fellow from Krypton started throwing his weight around.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Have you ever uttered words that you thought no one had paid attention to, but later were quoted, so as to cause you embarrassment? Such it is for Beauregard from this strip to next weeks' Sunday strip.

Image-editing these strips is becoming more and more time-consuming, but I will stay on the task as long as I can. I'm losing interest in blogging and the internet in general, and I'm laid up with an injury sustained while on a photography assignment—so who knows how much longer I'll keep the Whirled of Kelly spinning. I only hear from some half-dozen of y'all at any given time (bless you guys), so the motivation to continue is waning.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

A lot of us love the slapstick antics of the swamp guys, the bombastic behavior of Albert, the bickering brotherhood of Howland and Churchy, the booms and blasts of fireworks and explosions that punctuate Kelly's story lines. But sometimes enough is enough of that stuff and we can use a little breather of quietude.

Right in the middle of the brick-throwin' cat episode, Kelly gives us this sweet interlude with Pogo and the Rackety Coon chile, hinting that Pogo might make a great father if he wasn't so dogbone shy around female folk.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Many artists have been influenced by Walt Kelly—his style, his humor, his unique way of telling a story—but none more so than one of our Friends-in-Kelly, 'Alimentary'.

Alimentary takes his pseudonym from an early Kelly character that wandered off from the storyline—a little alligator that was a brother or a cousin or something to Alabaster, Albert's nephew.

ANYway, 'Alimentary' is getting ready to premiere a comic that takes its styling from the very early Pogo comics when Albert was carnivorous, as alligators tend to be. As this preview graphic indicates, you can check it out in a couple of days at www.gonechoo.com

Friday, April 25, 2014

Our friend Barry sent over some nice scans of all the pages from Looney Tunes (and Merry Melodies) #4. Nestled on the inside back cover is a swell Walt Kelly rendition of Elmer Fudd, somehow set down in the land of Kelly as the old woman in the shoe!

What fun, sez I.

Thanks Barry!

Okay, full confession! I colorized the body of the shoe, as it was plain ol' black and white in the comic book and just cried out for something to give it substance. I wonder why they didn't color it.UPDATE:I got an email, asking to see the original raw scan. Here it be:

About Me

My name is Thom Buchanan.
I'm an artist and photographer.
People are my favorite subjects to portray in art and photos. My wife (and studio partner) has called that my 'people skills', as I've been passionately creating portrait studies for many years.
I refer to myself as a pictorialist, a combination of image-making and journalist. Images are my life.

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